Movie that grossed just $23,000 is being pushed by celebrities to win an Oscar

A small film with a ‘giant heart’ that grossed just $23,000 during a limited release in cinemas has been championed for awards season success by a whole host of A-list celebrities. You can see the trailer for To Leslie below.

To Leslie stars Andrea Riseborough playing a woman who is fighting off an alcohol addiction after she hit it big with a lottery win just a few years earlier.

With her money now gone, Leslie is impoverished and living between halfway houses and the streets, before turning up at her 20-year-old son’s place and living with him on the proviso that she stays off the drink.

After getting kicked out for drinking and stealing, the transient Leslie ends up with her sister, but is forced through a series of transformative and traumatic events on her ongoing journey towards sobriety.

The whole thing was put together for around a million bucks, with director Martin Morris claiming that he couldn’t even afford an advert for the film and only a limited release in cinemas.

It’s the sort of independent film that awards judges like, with Riseborough’s performance coming in for particular praise.

Momentum Pictures

The film - which also stars Marc Maron, Allison Janney, Andre Royo, Owen Teague, and Stephen Root - has become an unlikely cause for a load of serious Hollywood names looking to get it the recognition that they believe it deserves.

Cate Blanchett, who is herself considered one of the favourites for a Best Actress Oscar for Tár, spoke in favour of the movie during her Critic’s Choice award acceptance speech, calling it a ‘masterpiece of a film’ and adding that Riseborough deserves ‘to win every award there is and all the ones that haven’t been invented yet’.

Kate Winslet also called her turn ‘one of the greatest performances I have ever seen in my life’ whilst Amy Adams said that Riseborough’s role was ‘remarkable’ and described it as a ‘soul transformation’.

There are others, too.

Jane Fonda said she gave a ‘brave and unsparing performance’, whilst Edward Norton said Riseborough gave ‘the most fully committed, emotionally deep, physically harrowing performance I’ve seen in a while. Just raw & utterly devoid of performative BS’.

In short, the people in the business are convinced, and perhaps they should know.

Momentum Pictures

Jennifer Aniston called it ‘beautiful’ and Helen Hunt said: “If you’re out there voting for performances, don’t do it till you see Andrea Riseborough.”

It remains to be seen if the praise that the film has received will be heard and heeded by those in power at the big awards ceremonies of the season, but it certainly won’t be for lack of big name backing.

If you actually want to see it before then, you might have to look for one of the few cinemas that are actually showing it, or wait and see whether this groundswell of support actually turns into some showings.